【Article/Observer Network Columnist Chunzhou】
Recently, the ancient capital of Xi'an has been very hot. In addition to relying on the millennium ginkgo biloba and the tumbler sister "beauty on the hot search", it also enriched the "lifetime series" for the majority of archaeology enthusiasts.
No, Nagato Palace and Xue Shao's tomb are alive:
The TV series "Daming Palace Words" broadcast in 2000 once played the first encounter between Princess Taiping and Xue Shao very beautifully. In the writer's pen, the young Princess Taiping and Wei Shi sneaked out of the palace to visit the Chang'an Night Market and were attracted by a mask stall.
Princess Taiping asked, "What kind of mask is this?" It's as black as the bottom of a pot, and the nose is so wide... The stall owner replied: Gongzi does not know, this is called Kunlun Nu mask, the great pirate Wang Shijie has just returned from the sea to sell back a batch of Kunlun nu, individual as strong as an ox, but gentle temperament, down-to-earth and hardworking, as soon as he arrived in Chang'an, he was divided up by the nobles and magnates. Nowadays, being able to take two Kunlun nu bodyguards on the street is the most fashionable thing for the young masters of the family! Why don't you take advantage of the festival to buy two masks and catch up with the fashion?
Both of them bought fashionable Kunlun nu masks, but they did not expect that the two would be separated later. In the crowd, Princess Taiping lifted a Kunlun nu mask, thinking that she had found Sister Wei. But I didn't expect that after a lifetime, behind the mask was a prince, and this prince was his future horse Xue Shao...
Unfortunately, the political marriage between Princess Taiping and Xue Shao in history may not have such a romantic bridge. In this plot that hit the hearts of countless young girls, the most real is probably only the description of Kunlun Nu.
As the most eclectic dynasty in Chinese history, the Tang Dynasty is famous for its vast territory and perfect legal system, and its open dynastic character and international civilization have attracted people from all over the region to Chang'an. We can imagine that the various people walking on Suzaku Street, etc., from different regions and ethnic groups, although their skin color, language, and appearance are very different, they jointly constructed the pluralistic society and magnificent aspects of the Tang Dynasty.
In the Chang'an society at that time, people passed on a proverb of "Kunlun Nu, Silla Concubine", which said that the upper class of the Tang Dynasty was popular in raising Kunlun Nu and Silla Zi, and having Kunlun Nu also became a symbol of reflecting the family's position of power. And in the literature of the Tang Dynasty, the most famous of the Hu nu is Kunlun Nu.
Is Kunlun a black african slave?
The word "Kunlun" was used primarily in the Middle Ages to describe black or near-black things. For example, Empress Li of Jin Xiaowuwen, because of her slender body and dark complexion, when she was a palace maid in the palace, the palace people called her "Kunlun". However, what everyone did not expect was that it was this "Kunlun" who could later become the lord of the harem.
The name of the Sui Dynasty wine is "Kunlun Qian", because its color is like a daisy. During the Sui Dynasty, the eggplant was changed to "Kunlun Purple Melon", and during the Five Dynasties period, Murong Yan was superhuman, because of his "black beard, the number Yan Kunlun".
There is a poem by Yong Kunlun Nu in the Taiping Guangji Su Yong, whose words are clouded: "Ten inks on the fingers, two spoons for the ears." The same book "Mo Junhe" says: "Eyebrows are edged, skin is like iron... When King Rong of Zhao first ascended the throne, he saw his son and asked, "Why should Kunlun Er be like this?" ’”
Therefore, the dark skin image of Kunlun Nu is their most distinctive appearance.
The image of Kunlun Nu in dunhuang murals
Regarding the origin of Kunlun Nu in the Tang Dynasty, there has been controversy in academic circles. There are two main different views. One view is that Kunlunnu were black slaves from Africa, who traveled far and wide to Middle-earth, and with the exception of a few merchants, most of them were sold into slavery by arabs in the Tang Dynasty. Because the New Book of Tang records a route from Tanzania to China, later generations speculate that Kunlunnu entered China through this sea route.
The second view is that Kunlun nu came from the South China Sea Zhudao, that is, the islanders in today's South and Southeast Asia, that is, the so-called Kunlun people. Tang Zhang's book has a poem "Kunlun Er" Yun: "Kunlun's family lives in Haizhongzhou, barbarians will travel to Han China, words explain Qin Ji, and the waves have just passed through Yulin Prefecture." The golden ring was about to fall through the ears, and the long roll of the spiral bun did not wrap the head. Self-love skin is as dark as lacquer, and when it is walked, it is half-stripped of its cotton wool. Among them, "Haizhongzhou" should be a general term for the archipelagos of Southeast Asia and the Indochina Peninsula of the Tang Dynasty.
The description in the Tang monk Yijing's "The Return of the South China Sea" can also prove that Kunlun was used as a general name for the small countries in Southeast Asia at that time, "from the west: there is Brahma Shizhou, The Last Luo Youzhou, that is, the present corpse Li Buddha's death country is also." Maha Shinshu... The continent of Moga Man, and the small continent, cannot be recorded. Snaihan obeys the Dharma, mostly Hinayana and only Rahula, and few Mahayana ears... Good is digging. At the beginning of the jiaoguang, the envoy called Kunlun Yan. Only this Kunlun, the head is rolled black, the yu kingdoms are not different from the divine state, barefoot dare man, always its style. ”
In the Ten Records of the Zhenyuan Dynasty, completed around 801, the chancellor Jia Tan recorded the voyage from Guangzhou to East Africa via the Persian Gulf. It records a "Ghatta Sangha Kingdom", which is located on an island in the Brawys Archipelago, northeast of Sumatra.
In this way, it can be speculated that "Kunlun Nu" mainly included curly-haired and black-bodied slaves from all over the South China Sea and the Indies, and may also include black slaves from East Africa.
Black pottery Kunlun nu figurines Collection of the Palace Museum
Why do aristocratic giants love to use Kunlun nu?
What kind of occupation did Kunlun Nu specifically engage in in Tang Dynasty society? What kind of impetus was provided for the composition of the social structure and the development of economic life in the Tang Dynasty? In the murals of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, we find images such as Kunlun Nu driving lions, Kunlun Nu taming lions, and taming elephants, especially Manjushri Bodhisattva mount riders as the biggest feature.
Although the content of the Zen talk is mostly fictional, we can guess that Kunlun Nu must have the prototype of a beast tamer in the Tang Dynasty, and it is well known to people that it was praised by people and appeared in many works.
Tang Yuanshu has the "Pipa Song" cloud: "The pipa palace tune is eighty-one, and the three tones of the rotary palace cannot be played." Emperor Xuanzong favored He Huaizhi, and Duan Shi's art was still comparable. Since then, it has been rumored that the decline of Kunlun Shancai is in vain. Among them, the sentence "Kunlun Shancai Tuerwei" shows that there are also those who are good at music in Kunlun Nu, and their skills are extraordinary.
In 1985, a Tang Dynasty black clay figurine was unearthed in Guo Village, Zaoyuan Township, Changwu County, Shaanxi Province, which is quite exotic and should be the shape of an exotic person. The figurine is fully exposed, covered in red daring, wrapped around the shoulders to the lower limbs, dancing with its hands and feet, in the shape of a dancer, which may reflect the characteristics of kunlun nushan dance in the Tang people's impression.
In the sixteenth volume of the Taiping Guangji, it is recorded: "When I went to the south of the Temple of Heaven Mountain, I met a Kunlun nu and drove a cattle to cultivate the field. Although the story of the Taiping Guangji may be a vain and absurd thing, we can also speculate to a certain extent that Kunlun Nu was engaged in farming activities and was written into the story. Moreover, most of the Kunlun slaves of the Tang Dynasty, except for the official slaves, were owned by the rich households, and it was reasonable for the large households to enslave the Kunlun slaves as cultivators.
In the Tang Dynasty, male domestic slaves were generally engaged in miscellaneous services such as guarding the door, keeping vigils, carrying water, delivering meals, beating changes, and acting as retinues, and the Song Dynasty Zhao Rushi's "Zhu Fan Zhi" mentioned: "Entrusting (Kunlun) to manage the key is said to be his love without relatives." It can be seen that because of Kunlun's slave status and no relatives to worry about, the rich family can undoubtedly entrust him with the task of guarding the key.
Based on this, we can conclude that Kunlun Nu in the Tang Dynasty was engaged in two types of work: one was mainly physical strength, such as sailors, cultivators, domestic slaves, porters, soldiers and even pirates, etc., and the other was based on skills, such as animal trainers, musicians, dancers, merchants, etc. In short, the Tang Dynasty's extensive enlistment of Kunlun nu left a deep impression on the Tang people and even future generations, who, as the main foreign laborers of the Tang Dynasty, made important contributions to the development of Tang Dynasty society in all aspects of social life.
In addition to trafficking, some Kunlun slaves were introduced into China as tributes. According to scholars, in the tomb of Princess Changle in Yanxia Town, Liquan County, Shaanxi Province, a curly-haired woman painted on a mural on the east wall of Yongdao is likely to be a Kunlun slave girl who was paid tribute to China. In the picture, she stands in the princess's maid line with a thong staff, accompanying the princess like other maids.
Mural on the east wall of the Tomb of Princess Changle
Facsimiles from the Zhaoling Museum
Who would have thought that Kunlun Nu was more powerful than the Red Lady
As a group of people with distinctive characteristics, Kunlunnu naturally became a literary image created by novelists. The most successful was Pei Jun's "Legend of Kunlunnu". In this story, Kunlun Nu plays a more important role than the Red Lady.
The work recounts that during the reign of Emperor Daizong, Cui Sheng, a son of an aristocrat, visited the home of a regent, and fell in love with a red prostitute serving wine at first sight. Before parting, the red silk prostitute showed Cui Sheng sign language, and Cui Sheng was confused. After returning home, Kunlun Nu Mole explained the meaning of sign language for Cui Sheng, and helped Cui Sheng infiltrate the mansion of Yipin Xunchen to meet with the Hongxiu prostitute. Subsequently, Negative Cui Sheng and the Red Silk Prostitute flew over more than a dozen high walls, and finally achieved a happy marriage between the two sides.
After a few years, the truth of the matter was revealed. The high-ranking officials sent soldiers to surround Cui Mansion and capture Kunlun nu, who actually drifted away among the arrows like flying locusts. More than ten years later, some people in the Cui family saw Mo Le selling medicines in Luoyang City, and his face was as old as ever. At this time, Kunlun Nu Mole had become a Hu merchant who ran a medicinal materials business.
It can be seen that in the Tang Dynasty, where the commodity economy was developed, Hu Nu could become Hu Shang.
Ge Lao in "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an"
Since Pei's "Legend", it is particularly common to describe Kunlun nu in literary works, especially in later generations of opera works, and the chivalrous affair of Kunlun nu has become a common theme. However, not every Kunlun nu is as lucky as Miller.
The Taiping Guangji Ganze Ballad records such a story: Tao Yuanming's descendant, Tao Da, who lived in the Kaiyuan era, was a well-off scholar. He often traveled in the rivers and lakes, traveling all over the world, often for several years. While visiting the great rivers and mountains of Datang, I also love to be curious about rare treasures. I was fortunate enough to get an ancient sword, two feet long, and a jade ring, four inches in diameter, and the sea ship Kunlun Nu name Maha.
Maha is good at swimming and brave and strong. Tao Dian then regarded the sword, the jade ring and the Kunlun Nu as the "Three Treasures". When traveling outside, he often threw his sword and ring into the water and let Maha fetch it for fun. In this way, Maha played with him for many years...
Once, Tao Da Made a boat trip to Xisai Mountain, parked the boat at the Guxiang Buddha House, saw that the river was black and did not flow, and said: "There must be a foreign object here!" So he threw down the ancient sword and the jade ring and asked Maha to go down and get it. Maha went into the water for a long time, and said weakly, "The ancient sword and the jade ring are difficult to take, there is a dragon that is two feet long there, as soon as I reach out to get the sword and the ring, it looks at me angrily." Tao Da said, "You, the ancient sword and the jade ring, are my three treasures." Now that those two things are gone, what will you do? You must strive to get two treasures for me!" ”
Maha had no choice but to shout with his hair scattered, bleeding from the corners of his eyes, and desperately jumped into the water and did not come up again. After a long time, I saw that Maha's limbs had been torn apart like sacrificial cattle and sheep, and were floating on the water, as if they had been specially shown to Tao Da. Tao Da Nang is runny waterfront, but it is destined to return to the water. Because of the self-narration of the poem, I will not reconsider the matter of traveling in the rivers and lakes. The poem says: "Kuang Lu's old business has its own master, and Wu Yue's new residence is safe in this life." The number of white hair stems has not been obtained, and qingshan has looked back. Cranes turn maple leaves at sunset, and herons stand reeds in autumn. Since then, the boat has been what it has learned, and the wine flag song fan is greeting each other. ”
Kunlun Nu gained a good reputation in Tang Dynasty society because of his versatility, hard-working and loyal personality. In addition, their appearance and size were different from those of ordinary slaves, and their number was relatively small, so the upper class of the Tang Dynasty was proud to have Kunlun slaves. On the one hand, the story between Kunlun Nu and the master in the later interpretation and play of the note novel, the image becomes more and more brilliant and sincere, becoming a case of refracting the master-slave relationship. On the other hand, Kunlunnu also became a kind of link between the Civilization of the Central Plains of the Tang Dynasty and the civilizations of other neighboring regional ethnic groups, influencing and radiating from each other.